The remainder of our trip to Colorado wasn’t quite as jam-packed as our first day, so I’ll finish this little three-part series by summing up the rest.

On our second day, we visited Mount Falcon Canyon Park nearby where our friends live in Morrison.

After a nice, easy hike there, we visited One World Cafe, a cozy little place in Evergreen. The food was excellent (the soup of the day rocked) and I had Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale, which I’d say is one of the best pale ales I’ve ever had. It’s assertively hoppy, goes down easy, plus it comes in oh-so convenient cans, perfect for outdoorsy folk!

Later that day we attended the GABF, which you can read more about in Part 1.

The next day, we drove up to Mount Evans on the highest paved road in the US (over 14,000 feet)!

Later, we headed into Denver for FBAG – Flying Dog Brats & Gonzo. Free Flying Dog beer, free food, and free live music. You’d have to be an idiot to pass that up! I got to try their 20th anniversary brew called Raging Bitch, a Belgian-style IPA, which I really enjoyed. Tim and I got to chat with a few people we knew from Twitter; it was great to finally put some faces to the Twitter screen names!

For the end of the night, we headed to Wynkoop Brewing Company, got the sampler, and taught Tim’s cousin about beer (always love spreading beer knowledge). Once again, I was very impressed with their Patty’s Chile Beer, the beer we actually modeled our own chile ale after.

The next day was the Saturday afternoon GABF session, and that’s pretty much all we did that day!

Our last day started out with an amazing hike up Lookout Mountain. This hike was definitely not for the faint of heart… It was a pretty steep climb, with quite a bit of jumping from rock to rock towards the top, but it was so worth it. When we got to the top, I just couldn’t believe the view. And what’s more satisfying than getting to a gorgeous view with your own two feet?

After the hike, we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park, which was phenomenally beautiful.

Then, we hit an elk.

Seriously, we hit an elk, it was crazy. Luckily, our friend had good reaction time and was almost able to come to a stop by the time we hit it. The elk rolled a few times before darting away, leaving a lovely dent in the front of our friend’s RAV 4. It could have been much much worse though, thankfully all humans and elk involved were okay!

Our final stop of the trip was Oskar Blues Cajun Grill & Brewery in Lyons. It was a great meal after a long day of hiking, driving, and elk collision, and a nice way to end the trip. For sadly, the next morning, we flew home to boring, low-elevation Pennsylvania. *sigh*

We met some great people out there, saw some really beautiful sites, and drank A LOT of beer! We’re already planning our next trip out there to go skiing in February. Can’t wait!